The measure of my success or failure is not the sum total of my social media followers or comments or likes or shares or hearts or thumbs up or retweets or pins or whatever the latest gratuitous praise symbol of the day might be.

Rather, mere man cannot measure my success. My success is measured in how well I lived in obedience and submission to the assignment and call God placed on my life and, most importantly… is He pleased with me, His servant.

Did I seek Him? Was I listening? Did I hear Him? Did I obey Him? Did I hesitate even the slightest when I considered the cost that my obedience? Knowing full well it would cost me being cancelled by family and friends?

Would I be thought “too holy”, “too goody two-shoes”, “too opinionated”? Would I be labelled bigoted, racist, homophobic, narrow-minded, biased, judgmental, condemning, critical, and the list goes on. Yes, I would … and yes, I have. I have been labelled all of these and worse.

What most don’t understand is when it is all done… when my life ends, I will not be judged by those that labelled me. I will be judged by the One.

This is what I know.

I know I will not be judged on how well anyone responded to my faith, what I write, or speak, or publish. I am not responsible for someone’s faith choice. No one is required to like me or love me or agree with me. I will be judged because I did my best to be faithful to the truth and the call He placed on my life.

Through the generations there have always been and will always be obstinate and stubborn people, or as the Word of God calls them – Stiff-Necked People. “Those who have the opportunity to know God but serve themselves instead…  (Hebrews 3:7–12)”. Nothing I can say, do or write will change that.

I know God does not hold me responsible for their decisions. God does not hold me responsible for their choice to continue to live in rebellion and stubbornness. God does not hold me accountable for their choice to live for this temporary and fleeting world.

He holds me accountable for my answer to Him. My obedience to Him. “Each one of us has the personal responsibility to “repent and believe the good news” (Mark 1:15) and then to glorify the Lord with good works (Ephesians 2:10). “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:12). Those who choose to reject the truth of God “are without excuse” (Romans 1:20). We cannot evade our personal responsibility to exercise faith in Christ.”[i]

There are those who genuinely believe they answer to no one, no one has authority over them – they are their own god. And yet we are all ultimately accountable to God. One day every person who has ever lived will stand before Him to be judged. (Philippians 2:10-11)

There will be two separate judgments—one will be for believers (2 Corinthians 5:9-10) and the other, for unbelievers (Revelation 20:11-15) and the outcomes are quite different.

Since Christ bore divine judgment for the sins of His followers, they will never be held accountable for transgressions. However, when the unbeliever stands before God on the day of judgement, they will stand alone. There will be no advocate standing beside them stating their sins are covered under the Blood shed by Jesus Christ on the Cross. Alone… alone in their sins, alone in the decisions, alone in their rebellion. Alone in the lies they told themselves. Alone… alone for all eternity.

All people have a choice. Choose life – Choose death. It is your choice.

Our Heavenly Father God has provided for salvation – His Son Jesus Christ (John 3:16). Forgiveness is found in Jesus alone (John 14:6). To reject the only Savior is to be left with no means of salvation; to reject the only pardon is, obviously, unpardonable. Unpardonable with no hope for all eternity.

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[i] https://www.gotquestions.org/personal-responsibility.html

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